In today's conjuncture characterized by extreme global competition, cost elimination, customer satisfaction and productivity are rather essential for organizations to survive and compete. In accordance with this scenario, the present research proposes an integrated approach of many operations management philosophies and techniques, which are usually adopted in an isolated manner by many companies. The proposed approach integrates process mapping techniques, capacity management, Theory of Constraints and Empowerment and was applied to a credit concession process of a major Brazilian bank. Through employee interviews, primary data collection and direct observation it was possible to map processes, define capacities, identify bottlenecks, determine the personnel maturity level and, as a consequence, propose a solution by means of the Empowerment approach. As a result, a productivity increase of 27.78% and a cost reduction of nearly US$2.7 million were obtained with the improvements in the credit concession process.
Capacity Management; Process Mapping; Empowerment; Theory of Constraints
